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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2840 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
I quote the last paragraph of the press release:
The responsible Minister, Police and Emergency Services Minister Gary Humphries, has a lot to explain. He should also give his police officers some instruction in basic community relations - either that or lessons in how to transfer telephone calls.
Mr Speaker, if that was not casting aspersions on the police, I do not know what it was.
MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I will give more information in relation to a question, as I said I would yesterday, with regard to Diskdeed. I indicated yesterday that I would find out what action had been taken since the Diskdeed incident. Mr Speaker, I understand that a system is now in place to ensure that firms that apply for ACTBIS grants are checked against prosecutions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1989. I also understand that the majority of the funding that was provided to Diskdeed was paid for training provided by the CIT, and maybe it was training that they needed.
Statement by Member
MR WHITECROSS: I seek leave to make a statement in response to the statement the Minister just made at the end of question time.
MR SPEAKER: Under standing order 46?
MR WHITECROSS: No; a statement in response to the Minister's statement.
Leave granted.
MR WHITECROSS: I thank members for their indulgence, and I will be brief. Mr Speaker, in question time and then subsequently after question time, Mr Humphries accused me of making attacks on police officers. Mr Speaker, I do not have any kind of vendetta at all against police officers and I do not engage in gratuitous attacks on police officers. However, I will say this: Police officers, like other people serving the community, are public servants and ought to be subject to the same accountability.
In relation to the matter that the Minister just alluded to, Mr Speaker, the simple fact is that no satisfactory explanation was ever given of the issues that I raised and, as far as I am concerned, that matter is still outstanding. The issue that I raised in my question was to do with the accountability of the police. The Minister himself in question time indicated that the police had provided figures, month by month, saying that they were providing a certain level of staffing under the contract, which it would subsequently appear they were not providing.
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